Baseball sweeps Fairfield

Josh Cox ’08 was hot on his feet yesterday in the baseball team’s doubleheader sweep of the Fairfield Stags. So hot, in fact, that he stole six bases and nabbed four runs over the course of the day. And he wasn’t the only one who brought his best game.

The Bulldogs (23-14, 8-4 Ivy) used contributions from several players to sweep the Stags (11-20), 5-1 and 6-3, yesterday at Yale Field. Besides offensive production from players such as Cox, a strong defense limited to four runs over the two games led by the Eli arms.

“I would mostly just say the pitching was really good,” right fielder Brandon Josselyn ’09 said.

The first win was credited to pitcher Mike Elias ’06, who allowed only two hits, one run, and one walk in three innings. He also boasted four strikeouts. Relief pitchers Chris Walsh ’09, John Henry Davis ’08, Brian Irving ’08, and Adam Barrick ’06 also contributed by throwing scoreless innings for the Bulldogs to finish out the day’s first contest.

Also notable was the strong start of the first game with the Elis scoring a run during the first inning despite having no hits. The Bulldogs played some small ball by taking advantage of two walks. After that, they advanced runners to within scoring position before sending Cox home on a ground out.

In general, the Elis were not afraid to manufacture runs in the old-fashioned way without consistent power hitting.

“Even if we didn’t get the hit, we were doing the things that were getting runs home,” pitcher Brett Rosenthal ’07 said.

This included leaving few base runners stranded, an improvement from their games against Harvard over the weekend.

The bottom of the fourth in Game 1 was another stellar example of this. Shortstop Dan Soltman ’08 reached first on a fielding error before stealing second and advancing to third after Josselyn grounded out. Cox soon joined Soltman and added another stolen bag before second baseman P.J. Gorynski ’08 drove both home on a single into center field. After first baseman Marc Sawyer ’07 doubled to bat in Gorynski, the Bulldogs had scored three runs and pulled away from the Stags for good.

These games, as well as other midweek games are seen as launching points for weekend play.

“We look at the midweek games as important games that allow us to carry momentum into the weekend games,” Rosenthal said.

Though the Bulldogs emerged victorious, they still hold a higher standard of performance then they exhibited against the Stags.

“We didn’t come out with as much energy as recently, but we did enough,” said Ryan Lavernway ’09.

This Saturday, the Yalies will continue weekend Ivy play with two doubleheaders at Dartmouth.